It took me four months to go from idea to final product “Horse Activity Book for Girls who Love Horses”. During that time, I had to learn a lot about horses (because, yes, they weren’t my passion), about using new tools like Procreate to draw illustrations, and how to bring everything together in Canva to design the final pages.
There were moments of frustration. Honestly, I wanted to give up more than once. But one thing kept pushing me forward—my daughter.
Why? You might ask.
Well, she loves horses. She reads about them, draws them, colors them, plays with horse figurines, and rides them. For the past two years, she’s been asking me to make a fun workbook for kids like her—kids who love horses. She told me exactly what she wanted in it: word searches, mazes, math, and unscrambling words. I added more of what I thought would be fun, too.
I wanted it to be her Christmas gift, something made just for her.
This is the behind-the-scenes story of how the idea was born. I’m sharing it because I want you to know—there’s a lot of heart in this workbook.
Keep reading to discover what kinds of activities you’ll find inside, then check out the short video where I flip through the workbook page by page. At the end of this post, you can even download a few free printable pages (not the same ones from the paperback workbook) to get a feel for what’s inside.
Let’s dive in!
Equine Trivia
I wanted this workbook to be a fun way to check and build basic horse and equestrian knowledge. There are pages where kids label different parts of the horse, horse tack, and riding essentials. For kids who love horse jumping, there’s a matching activity with different types of jumps. I tried to make everything as engaging as possible and to mix the difficulty levels throughout the workbook.
Mazes
Designing mazes was more challenging than I expected, especially when I wanted them to follow the shape of a horse! But with help from a few YouTube tutorials, I figured it out.
Inside the workbook, you’ll find all kinds of mazes: circular ones, square ones, obstacle mazes, mazes with three possible endings, and even one that ends in the middle.
Handwriting Practice
I believe handwriting practice is important, especially cursive, which I like. You’ll find it sprinkled throughout the workbook in the form of tracing sentences and words. In the “fun facts” sections, there are block letters for tracing, too. The workbook isn’t focused on handwriting, but there are a few opportunities to practice along the way.
Riddles
The first riddle, “Who is who?” took me the most time to create. I had to figure out how these kinds of puzzles work. Turns out, each character needs a combination of two elements that set them apart.
Here’s a little behind-the-scenes moment I shared on Instagram—my daughter trying out the very first version of the workbook! I printed it at home and glued the pages together with PVC glue to make a test copy just for her. I wanted her to be the very first to use it, to see her reaction, and to hear her feedback so I could make any changes before the final version.
I used a photo of my daughter in her riding helmet and chose features like a flower on her helmet, glasses, bangs, earrings, and hairstyle. I illustrated these and combined them with different faces to make a riddle. Then I wrote clues and carefully removed the extra ones to make it a real puzzle to solve!
Decoding
Kids love decoding secret messages—at least mine does! So I added a few decoding pages. One has a path-following code, and two use pictograms to find hidden letters. All of them follow a horse theme, of course.
Math, Colorin Pages, Drawing & More
There’s a bit of everything here: addition, division, measuring height in horse hands, and number finding.
There are also creative pages—coloring pages, a one-line horse head drawing, and a symmetry drawing activity.
Word Searches & Unscramble the Words
These were the top requests from my daughter. We’ve got word searches for parts of the horse’s body, grooming tools, horse breeds, coat colors, and items in the stable. I tried to choose categories with enough words to make each puzzle fun and educational.
For the unscrambling activities, I got a little creative. One page features U.S. states where the horse is a state symbol (scrambled, of course!), and another has horse-related sports.
My Daughter’s Touch
This workbook was made with my daughter in mind. Many of the drawings are based on photos of her from our visits to horse stables. At first, I kept telling her it would take too much time to make a whole workbook. But one day, after I said I’d need to learn to draw horses, she came back with her beautiful horse drawings.
That was the moment I decided—I had to do it.
Her inspiration is on every page. And you’ll even see her illustrations included in the workbook.
The finished workbook is 94 pages long, US Letter size. You can find it on Amazon in paperback or as a printable PDF (the PDF version also includes a few bonus pages not included in the paperback, but those pages you can download in this post for free).
Watch the Flip-Through Video
Download Free Horse-Themed Pages
After publishing the workbook, I created a bonus pack of extra activity pages to share with you—completely free! The download includes 11 pages: 7 activity pages and 4 extras, such as a cover, answer key, and a page with links to my products.
Inside, you’ll find fun and educational activities like:
- A horse foot labeling page
- Cursive tracing about what unicorns symbolize
- Horse-themed math
- A maze
- A coloring page
- A word search about horse gaits
- A riddle to solve
Click the button below to download your free printable pack!
If you enjoy my work, please share it with others. By saving it to your board on Pinterest, you are giving me the opportunity to reach more people who, like you, are looking for free worksheets. There are many ways to support small businesses for free, and pinning the picture is one of them 🙂
